Clash of the titans: Asian koels

It is quite rare to spot the harbinger of Spring, the Asian koel males singing hidden within the lush green vegetation. Although a non-endangered species, yet they are persecuted relentlessly by ignorant humans. To spot the Asian koel females is even a rare incident unless one is extremely lucky! The sexually dimorphic species has dark-coloured males with shiny black feathers and spotted grey and white-coloured females. I was lucky enough recently to record and document two male Asian koels engaged in a fierce territorial fight. The species is mostly docile and avoid confrontations with other species. But possibly this was a territorial dispute by the most famous songbird (read rockstars of the avian world), and was intervened by their well-recognized enemy, the common Indian crow. The short glimpse of the inner species fighting for a shy species like the Asian koel was indeed a spectacular sight! The Asian koel like other cuckoo species is infamous as brood parasites.

The female koel quickly lays her eggs in the nests of their targeted host like the common Indian crow; while the males distract the crow parents and take them away from their nests. The strategy is to provide time and safe opportunity for the females to lay their eggs undisturbed and harassed. The growing koel chicks are notorious in throwing away all the eggs and/or chicks of their foster parents to drag their full attention for their nurture. Once grown up and strong enough to fend for themselves they leave their foster parents, never to return. The adult males hide themselves in dense vegetation and keep calling throughout the day to attract the attention of the extremely choosy females.

Migratory birds

Certain species of migratory birds have evolved to have strong flight muscles, feathers, low body weight and high energy metabolism to cope with this long-distance travel from one corner of the planet to the other across different continents. Their physical stamina, biochemical aspects of metabolism and ability to orient themselves according to the space and time is simply remarkable. Some of them have unique homing abilities to return to their home even if they released very far like the pigeons. It has also been found that such birds have the ability to detect the earth’s magnetic field due to presence of complex ferro-magnetic bioinorganic compounds in the brain tissues of these birds which are being researched now to act as sensors helping in their geospatial navigation.

The eyes of a bird has a specialized structure called pecten that provides them with much higher resolution power of their eyes, making them able to see from a very long distance and even from great heights. Some bird researchers suggest that birds like humans use mountains, river, valleys, or certain landforms to navigate their migratory pathways. However, this theory is highly debated now for accuracy. The ability of the birds to use even very faint light during flight under lowlight conditions. Many researchers indicate that birds have the ability to use natural biological sextants in their brains help them to navigate by using the stars and the moon at night; and with respect to the position of sun during the daytime. Their bodies are well designed to handle air current, air resistance, friction and fluctuation of pressures in their immediate environment helps them a lot to travel very long distance every day without getting exhausted. Furthermore, many migratory birds hunt insects, small mammals etc during their flight and can also excrete waste materials during their flight prevent them from the attacks of predators as well save time and energy for covering very long distances during their flight.

I am not quite convinced that birds could sleep during flights as it seems to defy the laws of nature without comprehensive Prof, but migratory birds in constant flight mode reduces their energy metabolism and conserve energy by travelling slow from time to time below their average annual speed. Nowadays many migratory birds that travel from colder to warmer environments are staying back in the winter months as the food supply has become better for many bird species due to close association with humans, garbage dumping sites and expansion of agricultural operations. Extensive poaching, illegal capture, trade and trafficking across national and international borders has been decimating many migratory species and hampering their annual or biannual migration across different continents or countries. More research needs to be done to decode the mysteries and myths associated with migratory birds.

World Sparrow Day

It is important to note that our planet earth does not belong to us humans only; but to all other species of animals and plants that are co-inhabitants of our ecosystem. The sparrow is a tiny bird and a humble species that has co-inhabited with humans from time immemorial. They have lived beside humans in both urban and rural environments in both developed and developing nations. But with human greed for exploiting more resources and changes in our lifestyle as also the changes in the construction of our buildings; sparrows had little opportunity to adjust to this changing world around them. Anthropogenic impacts has been the major factor including pollution, rapid unplanned urbanization and industrialization; together with human greed has decimated global sparrow population. Today in World Sparrow Day (March 20) it is our responsibility to protect this beautiful species by offering them protection and conservation.

World Sparrow Day is a day designated to raise awareness of the house sparrow and then other common birds to urban environments, and of threats to their populations, observed on 20 March. It is an international initiative by the Nature Forever Society of India in collaboration with the Eco-Sys Action Foundation (France) and numerous other national and international organisations across the world. World Sparrow Day was first celebrated on March 20, 2010. Every year, this day is celebrated all over the world to raise awareness about house sparrows and other common birds affected by the environment. The Nature Forever Society (NFS) in India started an international initiative to celebrate World Sparrow Day. This society works in collaboration with the Eco-Sys Action Foundation from France. The Nature Forever Society was founded by an Indian conservationist, Mohammed Dilawar, who started his work by helping the house sparrows in Nasik.

Parakeets

Plum-headed and grey-headed parakeets are two extremely beautifully coloured distinct parakeet species from the Indian subcontinent. The species called plum-headed parakeet is distinctly dimorphic. The male has brighter plum coloured head and the female has lighter mauve coloured head. This is one of the most conspicuous dimorphic species among parakeets found in India; after the rose ringed parakeet where the male has a dark ring around the base of the head but the female lacks that marking. The grey-headed parakeet colour is much deeper. Often female plum-headed parakeets are identified and labelled or illegally sold to customers as grey-headed parakeet as the plum-headed parakeet is more abundant in numbers.

Illegal breeders of indigenous species knowingly or unknowingly keep different parakeet species together in their illegal captive breeding programs. They often produce hybrid species with different colourations that are sold at high prices to the customers. But the approach is absolutely non-ethical and destructive to nature as these are synthetic species and not natural wild species created in nature and has slowly evolved to this current shape, form and colour. Accidental release if such hybrids into the wild could cause gene contamination and genetic bottlenecks by cross-breeding with wild species weakening the vigour, population dynamics and ecological health of the species. Breeding of wild birds such as parakeets must be monitored and restricted to avoid genetic contamination of the wild stock of the concerned species. The mesmerizing colouration should not be the cause of their illegal capture, breeding, sale and trafficking. We must take actions to protect and conserve these beautiful species.

.    .    .